COUNTRY LEVEL DATA - FOR FREE - ISSUED BY INDIVIDUAL AUTHOR(S)
Institution/developer Dataset Main content Data Source URL - Home/Info URL - Data Number of countries covered Period covered Downloading options Comments
Alesina, Devleeschauwer, Easterly, Kurlat & Wacziarg "Fractionalization" New measures of ethnic, linguistic and religious fractionalization.  National cencsus data, Encyclopedia Britannica, CIA World Factbook etc. http://www.stanford.edu/~wacziarg/downloads/fractionalization.pdf http://www.stanford.edu/~wacziarg/downloads/fractionalization.xls 190 Varies Excel  
Alvarez, Cheibub, Limongi & Przeworski (ACLP) Political and Economic Database Impact of democracy on development. Data from IMF, World Bank, Penn World Tables, Freedom House, The Economist etc. http://www.ssc.upenn.edu/~cheibub/data/Default.htm http://www.ssc.upenn.edu/~cheibub/data/AclpData.xls 135 1950-1990 Excel  
Armingeon, Leimgruber, Beyeler & Menegale Comparative Political Data Set I (OECD) A collection of political and institutional data, supplemented by demographic, socio- and economic variables. Data from Political Data Yearbook (Eur. Journal of Pol. Research), from Huber/Ragin/Stephens, Quinn, Lijphart, Schmidt and other authors. http://www.ipw.unibe.ch/content/team/klaus_armingeon/comparative_political_data_sets/index_ger.html http://www.ipw.unibe.ch/content/team/klaus_armingeon/comparative_political_data_sets/index_ger.html 23 1960-2004 Excel, SPSS  
Armingeon & Careja Comparative Political Data Set II (Post-Communist Countries) A collection of political and institutional data, supplemented by demographic, socio- and economic variables. Data from OSCE Election Reports, Freedom House, Transparency International, ILO, Lijphart and other authors. http://www.ipw.unibe.ch/content/team/klaus_armingeon/comparative_political_data_sets/index_ger.html http://www.ipw.unibe.ch/content/team/klaus_armingeon/comparative_political_data_sets/index_ger.html 28 1989-2005 Excel, SPSS  
Barro & Lee Educational Attainment Data International Comparison of Educational Attainment Census and survey figures, and estimates from school-enrollment data. http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20699067~pagePK:64214825~piPK:64214943~theSitePK:469382,00.html http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20699067~pagePK:64214825~piPK:64214943~theSitePK:469382,00.html 120 1960-1985 ASCII  
Barro & Lee Schooling quality in a Cross-Section of Countries International Measures of Schooling Years and Schooling Quality Census and survey figures, and estimates from school-enrollment data. http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20699068~pagePK:64214825~piPK:64214943~theSitePK:469382,00.html http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20699068~pagePK:64214825~piPK:64214943~theSitePK:469382,00.html 126 1960-1990 ASCII, Excel  
Bueno de Mesquita, Smith, Siverson & Morrow The Logic of Political Survival Data Source A wide range of indicators of conflictdata, regimes and wars Miscellaneous. http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/politics/data/bdm2s2/Logic.htm  http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/politics/data/bdm2s2/Logic.htm  199 1815-2002 Excel, Stata  
Beck, Clarke, Groff, Keefer & Walsh Database of Political Institutions The variables provide information on elections, electoral rules, type of political system, party composition of the opposition and government and coalitions, and the extent of military influence on government. Official data/ World Bank data. http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20649465~pagePK:64214825~piPK:64214943~theSitePK:469382,00.html http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20649465~pagePK:64214825~piPK:64214943~theSitePK:469382,00.html 178 1975-2004 Excel, Stata  
Cingranelli & Richards (CIRI) "Human Rights Dataset" Standards-based quantitative information on government respect for 17 internationally recognized human rights. Country analyses from U.S. State Department and country reports from Amnesty International. http://ciri.binghamton.edu/ http://ciri.binghamton.edu/myciri/my_ciri_login.asp 195 1981-2005 ASCII, Excel Registration required.
Coppedge Polyarchy Scale and Contestation Scale Free and fair elections. The "scale score" is the sum of 4 components: fair elections variable, freedom of organization, freedom of expression and alternative sources of information. Surveys. http://www.nd.edu/~mcoppedg/crd/datacrd.htm http://www.nd.edu/~mcoppedg/crd/datacrd.htm 60 1985/2000 Excel, SPSS  
Court, Kristen & Weder Bureaucratic Structure and Performance: African Bureaucratic Structure Survey Bureaucracies and perceptions of corruption. Uses five summary indicators: agency power, autonomy, career opportunities, private sector career, relative wage. Data from Evans-Rauch database, WDR 1997 report and UNU survey. Surveys of high-level bureaucrats conducted by local experts.
http://www.unu.edu/hq/academic/Pg_area4/b-structure.html http://www.unu.edu/hq/academic/Pg_area4/excel/denmark.xls 51 1970s-1990s Excel Click "cancel" when asked for username and password
Deininger & Squire Income Inequality Gini coefficients and individual quintile groups’ income shares Miscellaneous. http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20699070~pagePK:64214825~piPK:64214943~theSitePK:469382,00.html http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20699070~pagePK:64214825~piPK:64214943~theSitePK:469382,00.html 138 1890-1996 Excel, Lotus  
Djankov, McLeish, Nenova, and Shleifer Who Owns the Media? This data set collection provides systematic data on ownership structure of the top five daily newspapers and top five television stations Miscellaneous. http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/shleifer/data.html http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/shleifer/Data/media_data_final.xls 97 1999 Excel  
Dollar & Kraay "Growth is Good for the Poor" Inequality, incomes and growth. UNU-WIDER, Deininger & Squire, Chen & Ravallion, Lundberg & Squire. http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20699390~pagePK:64214825~piPK:64214943~theSitePK:469382,00.html http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20699390~pagePK:64214825~piPK:64214943~theSitePK:469382,00.html 137 1955-1999 Excel  
Dollar & Kraay "Institutions, Trade and Growth" Measures of trade and institutional quality. World Development Indicators; World Currency Yearbook; Summer & Heston; Kraay, Loayza, Serven & Ventura. http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64166093&pagePK=64165259&piPK=64165421&theSitePK=469382&repNo=WPS3004 http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20699374~pagePK:64214825~piPK:64214943~theSitePK:469382,00.html 212 1969-1999 Excel  
Easterly & Levine "Africas Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions" Quantifies the relationship between long-run growth and a wider array of factors. Data from a multitude of institutes, organizations and individual authors. http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20700002%7EpagePK:64214825%7EpiPK:64214943%7EtheSitePK:469382,00.html http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20700002%7EpagePK:64214825%7EpiPK:64214943%7EtheSitePK:469382,00.html 160 1960-1980 ASCII, Excel  
Evans & Rauch Bureaucratic Structure and Economic Performance Project (a.k.a. Weberian State Data Set) Impact of bureaucratic structures on bureaucratic and economic performance. Surveys based on questionnaires filled out by 126 country experts and data from Cross-National Time Series, Penn World Table etc. http://weber.ucsd.edu/%7Ejrauch/webstate/ http://weber.ucsd.edu/%7Ejrauch/webstate/website.out 35 1970s-1990s ASCII  
Franzese The Political Economy of Public Debt Data Base     http://www-personal.umich.edu/~franzese/Publications.html http://www-personal.umich.edu/~franzese/Publications.html 21 1948-1997 ASCII, Excel, Lotus  
Franzese Participation, Inequality and Transfers Data Base     http://www-personal.umich.edu/~franzese/Publications.html http://www-personal.umich.edu/~franzese/Publications.html 21 1948-1997 ASCII, Excel, Lotus  
Friedman, Johnson, Kaufmann & Zoido-Lobatón Unofficial Economy Dataset ("Dodging the Grabbing Hand) Determinants of unofficial activity. Data from Johnson, Kaufmann & Shleifer; Lacko; Loayaza; Schneider & Enste. http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/pubs/dodginghand.html http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/govdata/unofficial_data.xls 69 1998 Excel  
Gerring, Thacker & Moreno "Centripetal Democratic Governance" Data on a range of features of democratic governments. Impact of various political institutions on the quality of governance. Miscellaneous. http://www.bu.edu/sthacker/data.htm http://www.bu.edu/sthacker/data.htm 162 1960-2000 ASCII, Excel, Stata  
Gibney & Dalton The Political Terror Scale   Based on the annual reports by the US State Department and Amnesty International. http://www.unca.edu/politicalscience/images/Colloquium/faculty-staff/gibney.html http://www.unca.edu/politicalscience/images/Colloquium/faculty-staff/Gibney%20Doc/Political%20Terror%20Scale%201980-2004.xls 179 1980-2004 Excel  
Golden, Lange & Wallerstein "Union Centralization among Advanced Industrial Societies: An Empirical Study." Unions, employers, collective bargaining and industrial relations. Miscellaneous. http://www.shelley.polisci.ucla.edu/data/ http://www.shelley.polisci.ucla.edu/data/#ds 20 1950-2000 ASCII, Stata  
Golder Democratic Electoral System Around the World The dataset covers a wide range of institutional features including regime type, the electoral formula, the average and median district magnitude, the number of constituencies and upper tier seats, assembly size etc.  Miscellaneous. http://homepages.nyu.edu/%7Emrg217/elections.html http://homepages.nyu.edu/%7Emrg217/elections.html 199 1946-2000 Excel  
Hall & Jones "Why Do Some Countries Produce So Much More Output per Worker than Others?" Measure of Social infrastructure by combining two indices, government antidiversion policies and the extent to which a country is open to international
trade.
Miscellaneous. http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~chad/pon400.pdf http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~chad/HallJones400.asc 127 1950-1995 ASCII  
Henisz The Political Constraint Index (POLCON) Dataset Information on the number of independent branches of government with veto power and the distribution of preferences across and within those branches. Data from World Bank, Polity, Cross-National Time Series. http://www-management.wharton.upenn.edu/henisz/ http://www-management.wharton.upenn.edu/henisz/POLCON/ContactInfo.html 226 1800-2004 Access, Excel Registration required.
Heston, Summers & Aten Penn World Table Provides purchasing power parity and national income accounts converted to international prices, as well as demographic data and capital stock estimates. UN and World Bank sources, US State Department, ECA (Employment Conditions Abroad) etc. http://pwt.econ.upenn.edu/php_site/pwt_index.php http://pwt.econ.upenn.edu/php_site/pwt61_form.php 168 1950-2000 ASCII, SAS  
Huber, Ragin, Stephens, Brady & Beckfield Comparative Welfare States Data Set A wide range of indicators of welfare state development, its causes, and its outcomes. OECD, ILO, IMF, Penn World Table, Quinn, Kenworthy, Neumark, Swank, Wischer. http://www.lisproject.org/publications/welfaredata/welfareaccess.htm http://www.lisproject.org/publications/welfaredata/cws%20lis.xls 18 1960-2000 Excel  
Johnson & Seddon Wallack Database of Electoral Systems and the Personal Vote The database updates and expands the coding of electoral systems presented in Seddon Wallack et al's (2003) Database of Particularism (also below). The data distinguish electoral systems by the degree to which electoral institutions create incentives for candidates to cultivate a personal vote Data from IPU's annual Chronicle of Parliamentary Elections and Developments, Parlines database, IDEA's Handbook of Electoral System Design and Manual de los Partidos Politicos de America Latina. http://dss.ucsd.edu/~jwjohnso/espv.htm http://dss.ucsd.edu/~jwjohnso/espv.htm 180 1978-2005 Excel, Stata  
Johnson, Kaufmann & Zoido-Lobaton "Regulatory Discretion and the Unofficial Economy" Includes different measures of regulation, taxation, legal environment, and corruption. Data from different international organizations and institutes (World Bank, Heritage Foundation, Political Risk Services etc.) http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20701021~pagePK:64214825~piPK:64214943~theSitePK:469382,00.html http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20701021~pagePK:64214825~piPK:64214943~theSitePK:469382,00.html 50 Mid-90s ASCII, Excel  
Knack & Kugler Governance Index Indicators of Good Governance Miscellaneous. http://humandevelopment.bu.edu/dev_indicators/show_info.cfm?index_id=143&data_type=1 http://humandevelopment.bu.edu/dev_indicators/show_info.cfm?index_id=143&data_type=1 185 2002 Html  
LaPorta, López-de-Silanes, Shleifer & Vishny "The Quality of Government" (and other datasets from La Porta with others) Data on Government performance and its possible determinants Miscellaneous. http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/rafael.laporta/publications.html http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/rafael.laporta/publications/LaPorta%20PDF%20Papers-ALL/Quality%20of%20Govt-All/Quality%20of%20Govt.xls 190 Varies Excel  
Norris   Data on the social, economic and political characteristics of nations, but most importantly the classification of electoral systems, ballot structure, compulsory voting and other relevant electoral features. Miscellaneous. http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~pnorris/index.htm http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~pnorris/Data/Data.htm 191 1800-2005 Excel, SPSS, Stata  
Persson, Tabellini & Trebbi "Electoral Rules and Corruption" Relates corruption to different features of the electoral system. Miscellaneous. http://www.iies.su.se/~perssont/papers/pttjan03.pdf http://www.iies.su.se/~perssont/datasetselectrules.htm 86 1990s Excel  
Persson & Tabellini "The Economic Effects of Constitutions"   Miscellaneous. http://www.igier.uni-bocconi.it/whos.php?vedi=1169&tbn=albero&id_folder=177 http://www.igier.uni-bocconi.it/whos.php?vedi=1169&tbn=albero&id_folder=177 60/85 1960-1998 Stata  
Przeworski, Alvarez, Cheibub & Limongi Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Material Well-Being in the World Classifying political regimes, a six-fold classification of democracies and dictatorships. Miscellaneous. http://www.ssc.upenn.edu/~cheibub/data/ACLP_Codebook.PDF http://www.ssc.upenn.edu/~cheibub/data/Default.htm 135 1950-1990 Excel  
Roeder Clash of Civilizations and Escalation of Ethnopolitical Conflicts   UN, US Arms Central and Disarmament Agency, World Bank. http://dss.ucsd.edu/~proeder/ClashCodebook.pdf http://dss.ucsd.edu/~proeder/ClashForPosting.xls 130 1980-1999 Excel  
Roeder Ethnolinguistic Fractionalization Ethnolinguistic Fractionalization Bruk & Apenchenko (Atlas Narodov Mira), Bromlei, Taylor & Hudson, Europa World Yearbook. http://weber.ucsd.edu/~proeder/elf.htm http://weber.ucsd.edu/~proeder/elf.xls 183 1961/1985 Excel  
Scruggs Comparative Welfare Entitlements Dataset This data set collection provides systematic data on institutional features of social insurance programs. Data from International Social Security Association, Social Security Administration (US), European Commision and OECD. http://sp.uconn.edu/~scruggs/wp.htm http://sp.uconn.edu/~scruggs/wp.htm 18 1971-2002 Excel, Stata  
Seddon Wallack, Gaviria, Panizza & Stein Political Particularism Around the World The dataset provides indicators of the degree to which individual politicians can further their careers by appealing to narrow geographic constituencies on the one hand, or party constituencies on the other. Explores the connections between electoral systems and economic outcomes. Data from IPU's annual Chronicle of Parliamentary Elections and Developments, Parlines database, IDEA's Handbook of Electoral System Design and Manual de los Partidos Politicos de America Latina. http://www.iadb.org/res/pub_desc.cfm?pub_id=WP-463  http://www.iadb.org/res/pub_desc.cfm?pub_id=WP-463  158 1978-2001 Excel, Stata  
Swank Comparative Parties Data Set Political strength of political parties by ideological group in capitalist democracies. Browne & Dreijmanis; Mackie & Rose; Keesing's Contemporary Archives. http://www.marquette.edu/polisci/Swankpart5099code.pdf http://www.marquette.edu/polisci/Swankpart5099.xls 21 1950-1999 Excel  
Tsebelis "Veto Player Data" Data about the composition of governments of different advanced industrialized countries, as well as on the ideological positions of the different parties. Keesing's Archives, European Journal of Political Research. Ideological scores based on Warwick, Castles & Mair, Laver & Hunt, Huber & Inglehart. http://sitemaker.umich.edu/tsebelis/veto_players_data  http://sitemaker.umich.edu/tsebelis/veto_players_data  21 1945-2000 Excel  
Vanhanen Measures of Democratization (Polyarchy) Democracy ratings, based on electoral turnout and competitiveness. Miscellaneous. http://www.fsd.uta.fi/english/data/catalogue/FSD1289/index.html http://www.fsd.uta.fi/english/data/catalogue/FSD1289/index.html 187 1810-2004 ASCII, Excel, SPSS, Stata  
Vanhanen Index of Power Resources Measures of resource distribution. Miscellaneous. http://www.fsd.uta.fi/english/data/catalogue/FSD1216/ http://www.fsd.uta.fi/english/data/catalogue/FSD1216/ 196 1858-2000 ASCII, Excel  
Veenhoven World Database of Happiness The World Database of Happiness is an ongoing register of scientific research on the subjective enjoyment of life. It brings together findings that are scattered throughout many studies and provides a basis for synthetic work.   http://www1.eur.nl/fsw/happiness/index.html http://www1.eur.nl/fsw/happiness/statnat/statnat_fp.htm 114 1960s-2000s SPSS Have to order the data file
Wacziarg & Welch "Trade Liberalization and Growth: New Evidence" Trade policy openness indicators and trade liberalization dates. Expands on Sachs & Warner. http://www.stanford.edu/~wacziarg/downloads/integration.pdf http://www.stanford.edu/~wacziarg/downloads/liberalization.xls 140 1989-1999 Excel